Mitchell believes battle with the Bulls will show where Saints are at

The black, green and gold will face a formidable side at Loftus Versfeld Stadium this weekend as Phil Dowson's men bid to back up last Saturday's 38-8 win in the Investec Champions Cup opener against Castres.

And Mitchell said: "It's an exciting week and the first time I've done South Africa with Saints.

"In terms of the game, the Bulls are a top side, one of the best sides in this competition so it's good to see where we're at.

"We've spoken about the fact that they're different at home. It's an awesome place to play and with their top side out, it's going to be a tough game.

"It's a huge opportunity to see where we're at, and if we get a good performance and result there, it's going to kick-start our season.

"It's a good competition to see where you're at, and last year we managed to beat Munster home and away so it showed we can beat these top sides regardless of who they are.

"We went toe to toe with Leinster in the semi-final and it gave us the confidence to kick on in the Premiership."

Mitchell missed the start of the season due to a neck injury, which forced him to withdraw from Saints' pre-season fixture against Bedford Blues in mid-September.

He finally returned to action from the bench against Gloucester on the final day of November and made his first start of the campaign last weekend.

"It was my first start in a while so it was good to be back, and obviously to get the win was fantastic as well," Mitchell said.

"I'm feeling in a good place, my body is in a good place and beating Castres at home is always great so I'm happy.

"It was fun doing the tough things.

"It wasn't the ideal conditions and that wind was tough, especially in the first half when it was against us.

"But it's quite good in those kind of games because you have to find a way, and we showed we've got a bit of grit and fight in us so it's kind of what we needed after the loss the previous week.

"We all wanted to show a bit more intent and energy, and we want that every week.

"We showed that in tough conditions on Saturday and we need to do it every week, especially in Europe because we've got tough games coming up and we want to try to get some good results.

"We're in a good place at the moment."

In terms of his performance levels, Mitchell has looked like he's never been away, but he feels there is still much more to come from him in the weeks and months ahead.

When asked if it has been difficult to get back into the swing of things after so long out, he said: "Not really, apart from the lungs, trying to get the fitness back.

"I'm in a really good place, the physios have been fantastic with me and I'm pretty much back to normal.

"Body wise, I'm happy.

"You can only do so much fitness but it's never going to replicate that game fitness with the adrenaline and the fans there.

"Coming off the bench in the first game back, I was blowing a bit, but you get up to speed pretty quickly.

"I worked really hard on the training field and did so much fitness, training 15 on 15, so you always want to be in the same position as before you got injured.

"You don't want to not be yourself when you're back on the pitch and I haven't felt too far off it, but I still think there's improvement there."